Parliament: In the Plenary the contract on the exploitation of hydrocarbons in the Thracian Sea

Greece is among the three European EU member states, among the 27, that faces the least risk of adverse effects on our energy system, even in the case of the inevitable scenario of a complete cut-off of natural gas flows, assured by the Parliament the Minister of Environment and Energy, Kostas Skrekas.

The minister appeared reassuring about the country’s energy security, in the face of this adverse event, given the interventions that have already been made and will be made immediately. After the meeting at the Ministry of Environment of the Crisis Management Group, where the interventions, which must take place in the event of a complete cut-off in the flow of natural gas to our country, were updated, the competent minister informed the Production and Trade Committee about what was done so that Greece is energy secure and what was decided to be done. As he said this ensures:

– with the almost doubling of the storage capacity of Revythoussa, through the new floating tank, which has already arrived and will be operational within the month

– through the possibility for the four natural gas plants to use diesel in an emergency

– through the increased production of the existing lignite plants, but also

– the introduction into the country’s electricity grid of PPC’s new lignite plant in Ptolemaida “Ptolemaida V (5)” and also

– with the possibility to temporarily store strategic stocks in underground tanks in Italy that we will receive with a reverse flow, in case the need arises and according to the study of the European Commission.

The relevant information was given by Mr. Skrekas in the context of the passage by the competent parliamentary committee of the draft law of the Ministry of Environment and Energy “Ratification of the sixth amendment of the November 23, 1999 Convention on the exploitation of hydrocarbons in the marine area of ​​the Thracian Sea drawn up between of the Hellenic State and the Contracting Companies ENERGEAN OIL AND GAS – ENERGEAN OIL AND GAS HYDROCARBON RESEARCH AND PRODUCTION COMPANY ANONYMOUS and KAVALA OIL ANONYMOUS COMPANY”. ND and PASOK-KINAL vote for the bill, KKE and MeRA25 vote against it, while SYRIZA-PS and Hellenic Solution reserve their place in the Plenary tomorrow.

The responsible minister responded to questions raised by opposition MPs explaining that the country is not currently negotiating for long-term storage of natural gas in underground tanks and that it is not Greece that made the decision to proceed with storage in third-party underground storages , of other countries, is the European Commission. “We follow the European regulations. This is what we do, nothing less, nothing more. We do all the necessary interventions to ensure the energy security of our country” said Mr. Skrekas and repeated that Greece is in a much, much better situation than almost all other European countries in this exceptional case.

It is noted that the bill concerns the amendment of the contract on the exploitation of hydrocarbons in the marine area of ​​the Thracian Sea and essentially the possibility for a one-year extension of the concession of the underground warehouse of Kavala ENERGEAN OIL AND GAS which succeeded KAVALA OIL. For the reason that it is in the process of an international tender, under the TAIPED, the sale of this area of ​​the underground storage, so that it can be converted into an underground storage of natural gas so that the country can have its own storage of strategic reserves. “Now more than ever it seems necessary that we finally need to have such investments that ensure the adequacy of supply and energy security of the country in the exceptional conditions that are often unpredictable” said Mr. Skrekas.

The opposition

By the SYRIZA, the rapporteur Sultana Eleftheriadou stated the reasons why she believes that the original Concession Agreement has been flagrantly violated and addressing the competent minister she said that the government has no plan for the sanctioned Agreement clarifying that her party is in favor of healthy entrepreneurship which means “respect in labor relations and respect for the environment”. “And right now, AEGEAN ENERGY, which has received many gifts from the government of New Democracy in the last two years, cannot pretend that nothing is happening in the area granted to it for exploitation, cannot pretend that it has right to stop oil extraction in Prinos, it cannot hide behind its finger, in terms of its labor and environmental, labor and environmental obligations, it cannot only take from the Greek government and not comply with the original Convention Concession” he said.

“There is a big issue of violation of the obligations of the contract. On the one hand, the Greek State has come and put a guarantee for the loan of this company, on the other hand, this company does not respect the provisions of the contract, in terms of employment. In fact, you give loans, financial support, with the guarantee of the Greek State when all the workers are laid off, when we have the well-known invasion of the MAT in the factory, when there is at the same time authoritarianism along with layoffs and unemployment in an area that is affected and from other counterproductive options of the Mitsotakis government” also said the responsible leader of SYRIZA, Sokratis Famellos.

“The essence of today’s discussion basically concerns the security of the country’s energy supply through the utilization of a new storage area for strategic natural gas reserves, which will operate in addition to Revythoussa. Therefore, the extension and modification of the contract in question is needed in order for this project to move forward one day. A project for which, once its necessity is fully established, the government must give us a specific timetable and commit to the course and manner of its implementation,” said its special buyer PASOK-KINALApostolos Panas who asked a series of questions to the minister responsible for the Convention.

“The KKE votes against the sixth amendment of the Convention on the exploitation of hydrocarbons in the marine area of ​​the Thracian Sea, as it did in all the previous ones on the basis of the fact that hydrocarbons are the property of the Greek people and it is, as is proven in the current conditions, dangerous to be in the hands of the business groups to serve their profitability at a time when our people are groaning under conditions of energy poverty. From a position of principle, it is totally opposed to the sale of public wealth, land, infrastructure, minerals, energy sources and others to private parties”, clarified the position of the party, the specialist buyer, Leonidas Stoltidis.

“The government is promoting with this Convention a process that had started since 2011, the underground gas tank, which for incomprehensible reasons has not been built all these years,” said Vasilios Viliardos from the Greek solution and raised a series of questions, including why after the “condemnation” of our country in the Memoranda the renewal is constantly repeated almost randomly and also if the last of November 2021 has expired and if so, what was the reason. He also noted that hydrocarbon exploitation and know-how has existed in Greece since the 60s and wondered why there are environmental and touristic objections to mining in the Aegean and elsewhere?

“The whole process, it’s a process of targeted impoverishment of society, where, in whatever privatizations you christen PPP concessions or whatever you do, the price is minimal and the compensations during the time are more, multiples of the price. There are rents that citizens pay for the use of the infrastructure or the consumers for the use of the networks and finally the State loses by far, the citizens pay extra and you keep doing it, because you don’t care what the result is fiscally, economically, socially or anything, but a service processing interests,” he said on his behalf Day25 Crito Arsenis.